National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) often hits headlines for its unique social media uploads. A photo of astronaut Bruce McCandless II taken almost four decades ago, in February 1984, has caught everyone’s attention. In the now-viral photo, Bruce McCandless II can be seen floating completely untethered in space away from the safety of the space shuttle. The photo was taken when the astronaut had to step out of the Challenger space shuttle in order to rehearse for a satellite-repair mission. The photo marks a special achievement as it was the first time that an astronaut had walked in the dark void of space while being away from the spacecraft.
Floating above 170 miles (273.5 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, McCandless II remained alive with just the help of his Manned Maneuvering Unit. The stunning photograph has been shared on Twitter by a popular science page, Curiosity. Sharing the long-lost photo, the page wrote, “Perhaps the most-terrifying space photograph to date. Astronaut Bruce McCandless II floats completely untethered, away from the safety of the space shuttle, with nothing but his Manned Maneuvering Unit keeping him alive. The first person in history to do so.
The photo has garnered more than 1.61 lakh likes in just one day along with over 21,000 retweets. The photograph has taken the internet by storm. During the first of his two Space Shuttle missions, McCandless completed the first untethered spacewalk by using the Manned Maneuvering Unit. Curiosity on its Facebook handle wrote, “All information presented in our videos has been gathered from reputable sources and gone through an extensive checking process to ensure perfect accuracy ensuring only up-to-date and correct information is communicated across.”
Believe it or not, the untethered spacewalk is a fact. A report by USA Today confirmed that parts of the viral photo were taken from the 1984 picture of astronaut Bruce McCandless II during the first-ever untethered spacewalk. That year, Mr. McCandless and fellow astronaut Robert Lee Stewart piloted a jet propulsion backpack, called the Manned Maneuvering Unit.
While the untethered spacewalk did take place, the photo shared on Twitter is definitely digitally altered. According to USA Today, the original NASA image did not show the mountain ranges that are visible in the viral photo. Instead, the Earth image was taken from a mountain range photo, captured during a flight from Toronto to Beijing, China.
Describing the photo titled Free Floating, NASA stated in its website, “Astronaut Bruce McCandless is seen floating above Earth. He is farther away from the safety of his spaceship than any astronaut had ever been.” “This was made possible by a jet pack on his back called the Manned Maneuvering Unit, or MMU. McCandless tested the MMU near the space shuttle. He then went ‘free-flying’ to a distance of 320 feet away from the space shuttle.”
“That may have been one small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me,” McCandless had joked earlier, in reference to comments Armstrong made after taking the first human step on the moon in 1969. He died in 2017 aged 80.
